Ride Year 'Round: Top 10 Tips for Year-Round Pedaling from Seasoned Cyclists

Jay Suburb says, "Never let a little snow keep you from riding."

Autumn typically ushers in a transitional season for cyclists with cooler temps, stiffer winds, additional layers, hunting for the trail under fallen leaves (while trying to recall where the singletrack USED to be), group rides planned around fresh donuts and hot apple cider rather than ice cream, and/or racing 'cross.

While diminishing daylight and distinct chill in the air has some hanging up their bikes for the winter or heading indoors for a spin class, other riders remain resolute in their determination to ride year-round and are stocking up on warm layers, rain gear and good lights to see and be seen.

Here are our Top 10 Tips for Year-Round Riding, courtesy of your fellow cyclists and BicyclingHub fans.

10. Move to California!!!! ~Angie Achen

Castelli's Wool Cycling Cap in Grey Plaid keeps 
your head warm--and hides helmet hair nicely.

9. Ride all winter in Charlotte, North Carolina...Embrace the cold and wear layers, particularly a cap...you need to wear just enough clothes so that you are chilly the first 10-15 minutes. ~Jr DelVasto

8. Dress for the weather.. might be slow riding in the winter with snow but get in your base miles. If it is really cold make sure to not have straight water it freezes faster, mix in an electrolyte. And put your Camelbak under your jacket so it doesn't freeze. ~Kristhal Portugal

7. Don't decide whether to ride in the morning - commit every day before you commute - prep everything the night before and it's always time to ride. ~Max Slade

Winter events like Portland's annual Worst Day of the Year Ride are a great way to stay motivated and have fun with friends.

6. I take my bike to work and get a ride in during my lunch break. A short ride is better than an hour on the trainer! ~Scott Trombley

5. Petition your city, county, boro to install MORE bike lanes, especially in the busy central district. It can encourage more road-sharing and actually saves lives. ~Mark Flanigan

Would you ride your bike in THIS? Photo courtesy of MSN.com

4. For up north, studded tires take the worry out of wiping out in the snow and ice. Dress up warm and go out in a snow storm, no cars on the roads and enjoy the beauty of the stillness in the snow, except you pedaling! ~Mary Connor, Marquette, MI

3. What about cake? Cake's got layers. The keys for me are my head for overall comfort, and good stuff for my hands and feet. Best hand comfort comes from a good-fitting bike (which will help you keep blood flowing to your fingers). The rest of my body is easy to manage with layering. ~Roger Barr

2. I figure it's as cold out here whether I ride, walk or take the bus. Where I live, in Philadelphia, it's far easier and quicker for me to ride to work on my 2 mile commute to the office. It takes tops, 15 minutes. But if I walk or take the bus, it's much longer and I'm out in the elements getting colder or wetter. I wear thinner layers so I'm not bundled up like the little brother in A Christmas Story. I don a beanie cap under my helmet and an earband over my helmet. I save at least 4 bucks a day, save time and aggravation and I get some exercise while logging about 20 miles a week that I otherwise wouldn't have. All by allowing me a fancier coffee and/or a pastry treat once in a while with the bucks I save and the calories I burn. ~The Bicycle Chef


1. Fenders, a good hose and lots of chain lube! ~Scott Sherman

Self-Care Tips for Winter Cycling

Harsh winter cycling conditions prompting your body to cry out for some much-needed TLC? Beth Griffing and Seven Crow, practitioners at the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine, have put together a list of useful self-care tips cyclists can employ to help get you through the cold, damp, wet months that define winter (and/or spring) in your hometown riding area.

Photo (left) courtesy of BicyclingHub reader Lauren L.: "Me and the boys trying to keep up with Buddy the dog (hiding on the right) at Otis AFB on Saturday. Exciting riding with patches of snow and ice around every corner!! It was super windy but the bright blue sky and sunshine kept us going :-) Get out there before it snows again!"

Winter Biking Self-Care Tips

Drink warming herbal tea

Ginger tea is excellent for keeping your body warm and increasing circulation so you don't stiffen up too quickly. Make it using fresh ginger, sliced up and boiled or just a dry ginger tea bag steeped in hot water. Any of the warming spices are beneficial in this way: cardamon, allspice, nutmeg, clove, star anise, etc... the Chai spices! All fantastic for promoting circulation and keeping out colds/viruses. Honey is also an excellent sweetener to harmonize the stomach and cut the edge of the warmer spices. Keep a chunk of ginger, dried herbs or tea bags on you to drink up after a ride in the cold to keep up your good health!

Foot Bath

Simmer rosemary and lavender (fresh or dried) and dried mugwort in a couple quarts of water for 10-20 minutes, then pour into a little foot tub/bucket. Add epsom salts or sea salts if you have them: this will relax and rejuvenate your whole system. If some part of your body is aching, soak a washcloth in the same water, wring it out and lay it on the aching area to decrease inflammation and pain.

Tiger Balm patches

Excellent for prolonged local pain relief. Just don't put them on too soon before or after a shower. Make sure to wash your hands well afterwards so as not to get any in your eyes. Wowee, that can be spicy.

Moxibustion
Use one of these “smokeless moxa rolls” (pictured left) to relax muscles and ease joint pain.

Just use a candle to light it, make sure to keep an ashtray handy so you can scrape off any ash that forms, and pay attention to how hot your skin gets! (This seems obvious, but sometimes you may have decreased sensation in an area, and not notice how much heat the skin can physically absorb.) Be sure to examine the pole for any cracks or splits, a sign that the pole can no longer be used due to danger of a hot portion cracking off during treatment. To help avoid cracking, extinguish the pole in sand or salt instead of water, so it can be used multiple times.

This type pictured right is good as well, since you can just peel off the plastic at bottom and stick it onto your skin, while keeping the cone from ever touching the skin directly (they look like fireworks but are very easy to use).

The idea is to feel a sense of pressure and/or movement within the muscle that is being treated.

You will need:

• one stick-on moxa tube
• one lighter
• an ashtray/heat-proof receptacle
• tweezers or hemostat

To treat yourself: just stick on the moxa tube (peel off plastic to reveal sticky circle), light the incense-looking portion with a lighter (or crackpipe-torch from the plaid), and let it burn down until it feels hot enough. At that point use the tweezers or hemostat to remove the moxa tube from your skin. It helps to press the skin nearby to get the sticky portion to come off.

Remember this point- leg three miles! This is the place for the stick-on moxa! Also good to just massage or knuckle-tap this area.

Stick-on moxa is good for the back as well, along the thighs at any sore points, and parallel to the shin (the muscle portion, NOT the boney portion).

And remember the low-back/kidney rub... with hands in light fists, rub the thumb/forefinger portion along both sides of your spine in circular motion, covering your whole low back. The more vigorously you rub, the more energizing it is!

Qigong exercise for tight shoulders/back and stress
Stand with feet shoulder width apart, knees slightly bent. Relax arms completely and twist the torso, rotating the shoulders while keeping hips facing forward. Let the arms swing with your rotation, like limp noodles. Do this for a few rounds, settling into your feet and relaxing the whole body, swinging the arms with the torso twisting side to side (lead with your torso and let the arms just swing naturally). Now while you've turned to the left side, swing your right arm up, cup your hand gently and pat your left shoulder firmly using the relaxed downward swing of your right arm. Let the right arm fall to your side as you turn to the right and bring the left arm up with hand cupped, letting it drop down onto your right shoulder (on top of that tense trapezius muscle that clenches when you shrug your shoulders.) And let that arm fall to the side as you swing back the other direction, bringing the right arm up, etc.

Do this exercise for a few minutes, letting the shoulders release a little more with each pat. Imagine that the hand patting the shoulder is bringing a handful of fresh, relaxing energy into your shoulders while dispersing the pent-up, tired energy, and don't be afraid to make a good slap (but never use a flat palm). Now pause, still standing with feet shoulder width apart and relaxed knees. Shake your whole body, moving any portion that feels stuck or tense, and just wiggle and bounce around until you feel stress leave your body in embarrassment. Invite a nice deep breath of fresh air into your body through your nose, and feel it drawing energy up through your feet and into your belly (or from the top of your head into your belly). Exhale fully through your mouth, letting the rest of any remaining tension dissipate to the far corners of the universe/into the earth. Remember that our carbon dioxide out-breath is beneficial for plants (in small amounts of course); our waste and stress can be recycled into the food chain as well :)

Cupping

See your acupuncturist about this therapy, since it's a little more complex. It works great on thighs and calves, although for the hamstrings and back it requires a helper!

This article was based off a recent presentation to the Portland Society. For more information on Chinese Medicine and Do-It-Yourself healthcare for active people, consult catalystforbreakfast.wordpress.com or email bethgriffing@gmail.com or 7crow.medicine@gmail.com .

Never let a little snow keep you from riding

Congratulations to Mario Bartel, aka Jay Suburb, for his winning photo entry of our Facebook photo contest on wintertime riding conditions. Bartel states, "It was shot with the self-timer on my camera while on a ride out to the University of British Columbia last Friday [February 18, 2011]. We'd had some pretty bizarre weather role through here on Thursday, with rain, hail, sleet, snow and even thunder and lightning in the space of a few hours.

"I've learned to pack my camera along on rides as I keep a cycling blog chronicling my training for last year's Whistler Gran Fondo and, this year, Levi Leipheimer's Gran Fondo, as well as other random musings, at: http://thebigring.wordpress.com "

As Jay says, "Never let a little snow keep you from riding!" Amen to that, Jay, and congratulations on earning yourself a $50 gift certificate to BicyclingHub.com for some great new winter riding gear.

Staying Motivated Thru Winter

Top 10 ways to make riding on an indoor trainer more enjoyable

Winter in upstate New York: not the most bike-friendly place to ride.

Whether Punxsutawney Phil spied his shadow or not earlier this month in your neck of the woods, or the global warming phenomenon has barraged your hometown with torrential rain, massive flooding, 10 ft. snowdrifts, or bitter cold, by mid-February cyclists in many parts of North America are experiencing a serious case of cabin fever. How do we stay motivated to ride, train, remain healthy and get in shape when our feet are itching to clip in to the pedals but the roads and/or trail conditions forbid it?



Move over, Frosty; in times like these, an indoor trainer might become your most reliable winter companion.

Sure, we became cyclists to go out and explore the great outdoors, not fix our back wheels to a stationary object and ride in place. But if weather, circumstances or time constraints dictate your workout schedule, then it might be time to crank up the tunes and indulge in some interval sessions. Keeping them challenging, fast, and relatively short (1 hour 3 times a week suffices for many, especially when paired with weightlifting or other cross-training winter activities), you can keep your legs "tuned up" for spring while avoiding the mind-numbing boredom staring at four walls typically brings.

We polled fellow cyclists our Facebook fan page to find out, What keeps you motivated and spinning your wheels thru winter? Based on the variety of responses and suggestions offered, BicyclingHub.com presents the top 10 ways to make riding on an indoor trainer more enjoyable.

10. Watch a Paris-Roubaix video while listening to iPod LOUD. ~Roger M.

9. Good music, good friends, cool video, do it naked! ~Colleen T.

8. We try to mix up the places we actually ride (buddy's houses, basements, etc.) this helps with the same ol same ol. Follow the lead of the host trainer to get a good mix of workouts. ~Todd P.

7. I'll go with good tunes or a movie, but I also like Spinervals and Carmichael training videos. ~Jim M.

6. Thesufferfest.com has nice video workouts! Nicely produced. (they don't pay me to say this!) ~Mark N.

5. I live in SE Florida, why bother training inside? ~RJ H.

4. Not sure but I am going to find out. Setting up my rollers in the garage tonight. Gonna try the mountain biking DVD's first, then maybe some interval training DVD's and then Netflix. Beer will probably be involved with all three at some point. ~John R.

3. Watching TV and having a training plan that isn't boring - changes up every day. ~Sue S.

2. Take up a spin class ..great training for the winter. ~Beatrice I. D.

1. Ride outside, dress appropriately. ~Chad M.

You know the old Norwegian saying, "There's no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing?" BicyclingHub.com couldn't agree more.

With the appropriate gear and a good attitude, you can make even the Worst Day of the Year your best ride yet.